Cadwell Hoerle: He Built A House, A Golf Course, And A Legacy Of Hard Work

Extraordinary Life

Cadwell Hoerle was a hands-on builder, a person never reluctant to get his… (Handout )

March 22, 2013|By ANNE M. HAMILTON, Special to The Courant, The Hartford Courant

Cadwell Hoerle was a hands-on builder, a person never reluctant to get his hands dirty. His legacy to Plainville was a golf course and a swimming club. His legacy to his children was the value of plain, hard work and a generous nature.

"He just liked to bang nails, and he just liked to work," said his son, Rowland, nicknamed Skip.

Hoerle died on Nov. 20.

He was born on Sept. 19, 1927, one of Rowland and Marion Hoerle's four children. He went to Plainville High School, left a few months before graduating and joined the Navy in 1945. (He later received a diploma.)

By that time, World War II was winding down, and he served in the South Pacific without seeing combat. When he returned, he sold industrial supplies for a time, then went to work for Ideal Machinery and Supply, a business started by his grandfather, Frederick Hoerle. After his father died in 1954, Hoerle ran Ideal along with his brother, Frederick O. Hoerle who was president of the company. The company sold industrial supplies around the Northeast.

Hoerle, known to his friends as Caddy, courted Margit Benson, called Peggy, a teller he met at a bank. They married in 1954, and had five children.

But Hoerle wanted to be more active than he was at the office. He bought out his sisters' interest in the family's 50 acres on Red Stone Hill, and he used to visit an older Italian gentleman who lived on the adjacent parcel. He would drink the man's homemade wine and pass the time of day. Eventually, Hoerle bought the farmer's 55 acres.

Although he was not an avid golfer, Hoerle decided to build a golf course. Relying on his own labor, as well as that of others, Hoerle turned the land, much of which had been a pig and dairy farm, into a nine-hole golf course, called Red Stone Hill. He had a backhoe, and he built the clubhouse on the foundation of the old barn, and also excavated five ponds. After the course opened, he used to ride the tractor himself to keep the greens trimmed.

He wanted to add another amenity, and did some of the excavation for a swimming pool that became the Red Stone Swim Club in 1959.

His family lived in an 18th century house that could be traced back to Ajahel Hooker. "It had its ghosts," Skip said.

It originally was an eight-room cape, with nine rooms added in the 19th century. To accommodate his large family, Hoerle built more rooms — eventually the old farm house contained 23 rooms, including an in-law apartment. There was only one bathroom with a shower upstairs while the children were growing up, though, and it had a strict schedule for its use, determined by the children's respective bus schedules.

"If my sister got in first, we were all done," Skip recalled.

Building agreed with Hoerle, and he put in a swimming pool and tennis court for the family. With the assistance of his father-in-law, he also build the family a summer cottage in Charlestown, R.I.

Hoerle was a loyal Rotarian, and help start the Plainville chapter. He never missing a meeting in more than 50 years.

"He had no colds, ever, in his life," recalled Skip. "When we were kids and got sick, he was ruthless."

Hoerle neither smoked nor drank, and watched his diet, but had a special yen for mollusks. "If he could live on clams, he would live on them 24/7," Skip said.

Sometimes, his cravings became strong enough that he would drive to his Rhode Island cottage twice a week to dig some clams.

A child of the Depression, Hoerle was frugal. "He understood the value of money and you shouldn't spend it," Skip said.

Hoerle tried to pass these values on to his children, who earned money by doing chores rather than getting allowances.

He once built a cabin cruiser, nicknamed The Ark, in the back yard. He tested it for leaks in the swimming pool before launching it on the Connecticut River. He was an avid fisherman, and Sunday dinners all winter long consisted of bluefish he had caught the previous summer.

Like his father before him, Hoerle served on the Plainville Board of Education — a total of 19 years.

"He was very giving and very willing to help," said James Parker, a longtime friend since high school. "He was always interested in people, always wanted to know about you and your family."

Eventually, taxes on the golf course grew higher than the greens fees Hoerle received, and he sold the land to a developer who build single-family houses there.

Together with his wife, Peggy, Hoerle hosted a number of young people from around the world who lived with the family while they were getting their feet on the ground in the U.S., or going to college. "She was on a crusade to save the world," said their son, Art.

"They were kind enough to help me out," said Lhundup Chagzoetsang, a Tibetan political refugee who came from India. "He was a very kind gentleman."